This invention relates to a method for usability analysis of web applications and, in particular, relates to a technique for analyzing usability of a web application which involves page transitions based on a workflow.
In recent years, a variety of services and works have been implemented in web applications. Improvement in performance of client terminals and server devices and advancement in web technologies, as seen in AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript+XML), have brought web applications involving not simple page transitions, represented by Google Maps, into practical use.
Furthermore, an approach to supporting routine works that follow predetermined procedures has been tried with web applications. Such a web application provides a flowchart image for indicating a workflow and a guide image for supporting operations at each step of the workflow. A user manipulates the guide image, following the workflow indicated in the flowchart image, to pursue the routine work.
In general, it is demanded for a web application that even a user with low IT literacy can make full use of it. The usability level of the web application significantly affects working efficiency; therefore, high usability is demanded for a web application.
The first thing to improve the usability of a web application is to grasp the actual conditions. The next thing is to analyze the conditions to improve the web application based on the result of the analysis. To grasp the conditions, there are two techniques: determining page transitions and determining utilization of pages.
To determine page transitions, there exist several techniques: a technique to determine whether a user is lost the way in page transitions (refer to JP 2003-281317 A), a technique to determine a route accessed with high frequency (refer to JP 2004-152209 A), and a technique to check whether pages are accessed as desired by the producer (refer to JP 2002-123516 A).